1. 1Today’s idea accurately describes you as God created you. 2You are one within yourself, and one with Him. 3Yours is the unity of all creation. 4Your perfect unity makes change in you impossible. 5You do not accept this, and you fail to realize it must be so, only because you believe that you have changed yourself already.

2. 1You see yourself as a ridiculous parody on God’s creation; weak, vicious, ugly and sinful, miserable and beset with pain. 2Such is your version of yourself; a self divided into many war­ring parts, separate from God, and tenuously held together by its erratic and capricious maker, to which you pray. 3It does not hear your prayers, for it is deaf. 4It does not see the oneness in you, for it is blind. 5It does not understand you are the Son of God, for it is senseless and understands nothing.

3. 1We will attempt today to be aware only of what can hear and see, and what makes perfect sense. 2We will again direct our exer­cises towards reaching your one Self, which is united with Its Creator. 3In patience and in hope we try again today.

4. 1The use of the first five minutes of every waking hour for practicing the idea for the day has special advantages at the stage of learning in which you are at present. 2It is difficult at this point not to allow your mind to wander, if it undertakes extended prac­tice. 3You have surely realized this by now. 4You have seen the extent of your lack of mental discipline, and of your need for mind training. 5It is necessary that you be aware of this, for it is indeed a hindrance to your advance.

5. 1Frequent but shorter practice periods have other advantages for you at this time. 2In addition to recognizing your difficulties with sustained attention, you must also have noticed that, unless you are reminded of your purpose frequently, you tend to forget about it for long periods of time. 3You often fail to remember the short applications of the idea for the day, and you have not yet formed the habit of using the idea as an automatic response to temptation.

6. 1Structure, then, is necessary for you at this time, planned to include frequent reminders of your goal and regular attempts to reach it. 2Regularity in terms of time is not the ideal requirement for the most beneficial form of practice in salvation. 3It is advantageous, however, for those whose motivation is inconsistent, and who remain heavily defended against learning.

7. 1We will, therefore, keep to the five-minutes-an-hour practice periods for a while, and urge you to omit as few as possible. 2Using the first five minutes of the hour will be particularly help­ful, since it imposes firmer structure. 3Do not, however, use your lapses from this schedule as an excuse not to return to it again as soon as you can. 4There may well be a temptation to regard the day as lost because you have already failed to do what is re­quired. 5This should, however, merely be recognized as what it is; a refusal to let your mistake be corrected, and an unwillingness to try again.

8. 1The Holy Spirit is not delayed in His teaching by your mistakes. 2He can be held back only by your unwillingness to let them go. 3Let us therefore be determined, particularly for the next week or so, to be willing to forgive ourselves for our lapses in diligence, and our failures to follow the instructions for practicing the day’s idea. 4This tolerance for weakness will enable us to overlook it, rather than give it power to delay our learning. 5If we give it power to do this, we are regarding it as strength, and are confusing strength with weakness.

9. 1When you fail to comply with the requirements of this course, you have merely made a mistake. 2This calls for correction, and for nothing else. 3To allow a mistake to continue is to make additional mistakes, based on the first and reinforcing it. 4It is this process that must be laid aside, for it is but another way in which you would defend illusions against the truth.

10. 1Let all these errors go by recognizing them for what they are. 2They are attempts to keep you unaware you are one Self, united with your Creator, at one with every aspect of creation, and limitless in power and in peace. 3This is the truth, and nothing else is true. 4Today we will affirm this truth again, and try to reach the place in you in which there is no doubt that only this is true.

11. 1Begin the practice periods today with this assurance, offered to your mind with all the certainty that you can give:

2I am one Self, united with my Creator, at one with every aspect of creation, and limitless in power and in peace.

3Then close your eyes and tell yourself again, slowly and thoughtfully, attempting to allow the meaning of the words to sink into your mind, replacing false ideas:

4I am one Self.

5Repeat this several times, and then attempt to feel the meaning that the words convey.

12. 1You are one Self, united and secure in light and joy and peace. 2You are God’s Son, one Self, with one Creator and one goal; to bring awareness of this oneness to all minds, that true creation may extend the allness and the unity of God. 3You are one Self, complete and healed and whole, with power to lift the veil of darkness from the world, and let the light in you come through to teach the world the truth about yourself.

13. 1You are one Self, in perfect harmony with all there is, and all that there will be. 2You are one Self, the holy Son of God, united with your brothers in that Self; united with your Father in His Will. 3Feel this one Self in you, and let It shine away all your illusions and your doubts. 4This is your Self, the Son of God Himself, sinless as Its Creator, with His strength within you and His Love forever yours. 5You are one Self, and it is given you to feel this Self within you, and to cast all your illusions out of the one Mind that is this Self, the holy truth in you.

14. 1Do not forget today. 2We need your help; your little part in bringing happiness to all the world. 3And Heaven looks to you in confidence that you will try today. 4Share, then, its surety, for it is yours. 5Be vigilant. 6Do not forget today. 7Throughout the day do not forget your goal. 8Repeat today’s idea as frequently as possi­ble, and understand each time you do so, someone hears the voice of hope, the stirring of the truth within his mind, the gentle rustling of the wings of peace.

15. 1Your own acknowledgment you are one Self, united with your Father, is a call to all the world to be at one with you. 2To every­one you meet today, be sure to give the promise of today’s idea and tell him this:

3You are one Self with me, united with our Creator in this Self. 4I honor you because of What I am, and What He is, Who loves us both as One.